Book picks similar to
The Character of the Church: The Marks of God's Obedient People by Joe Thorn
theology
christian
non-fiction
church-life
You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church... and Rethinking Faith
David Kinnaman - 2011
Now the bestselling author of "unChristian" trains his researcher's eye on these young believers. Where Kinnaman's first book "unChristian" showed the world what outsiders aged 16-29 think of Christianity, "You Lost Me" shows why younger Christians aged 16-29 are leaving the church and rethinking their faith. Based on new research, "You Lost Me" shows pastors, church leaders, and parents how we have failed to equip young people to live "in but not of" the world and how this has serious long-term consequences. More importantly, Kinnaman offers ideas on how to help young people develop and maintain a vibrant faith that they embrace over a lifetime.
PreachersNSneakers: 9 Questions to Help You Live Your Faith in an Age of Capitalism, Consumerism, and (Wannabe) Celebrity
Ben Kirby - 2021
Through this provocative project, the founder of PreachersNSneakers is helping thousands of Jesus followers wrestle with the inevitable dilemmas created by a culture obsessed with image and entertainment.In PreachersNSneakers: 9 Questions to Help You Live Your Faith in an Age of Capitalism, Consumerism, and (Wannabe) Celebrity, the author boldly confronts many of the difficult questions plaguing countless Christians’ minds, such as:Should pastors grow wealthy off of religion, and why do we get so angry when they do?Is it okay to stoke envy among others with curated “lifestyle” images on social media?Do we really believe that divine blessings are monetary, or is that just religious wallpaper to hide our own greed?Is there space in Christendom for celebrities like Kanye and Bieber to exist without distorting the good news?What about this: Is it wrong for someone like this author to call out faith leaders online and leverage “cancel culture” to affect change?PreachersNSneakers will navigate these challenging questions and many more with humor, wit, candor, and a few never-before-published hijinks. Each chapter will explore the various sides of the debate, holding space for readers to make up their own minds. The book will doubtlessly become a staple for church small groups, college ministries, and book clubs, emboldening struggling believers who want to live a more genuine faith.After all, the Lord works in mysterious colorways.
Sun Stand Still: What Happens When You Dare to Ask God for the Impossible
Steven Furtick - 2010
The words on these pages will not go down like Ambien. I’m not writing to calm or coddle you. With God’s help, I intend to incite a riot in your mind. Trip your breakers and turn out the lights in your favorite hiding places of insecurity and fear. Then flip the switch back on so that God’s truth can illuminate the divine destiny that may have been lying dormant inside you for years. In short, I’m out to activate your audacious faith. To inspire you to ask God for the impossible. And in the process, to reconnect you with your God-sized purpose and potential.—STEVEN FURTICK, from Sun Stand Still“Steven Furtick challenges all of us—from the missionary in the third world to the family in the suburbs—to believe God for the impossible and begin living a life of faith beyond the ordinary.”
—ANDY STANLEY, senior pastor, North Point Community Church
“I don’t know anyone better positioned to challenge you to rise above mundane living and embrace faith-filled audacity than Steven Furtick.”—CRAIG GROESCHEL, senior pastor, LifeChurch.tv“For too long Christians have embraced a miniscule vision of faith.… Steven Furtick reminds us that the God who accomplished the impossible through the great heroes of faith still desires to do the same through us today.”
—JENTEZEN FRANKLIN, senior pastor, Free Chapel
“This book will show you that your hopes and expectations are truly just the beginning of what God can do.” —ED YOUNG, senior pastor, Fellowship ChurchFrom the Trade Paperback edition.
Problems of Christian Leadership
John R.W. Stott - 2013
But God works with us and through us to accomplish his purposes. Available here for the first time in English is John Stott's practical wisdom for younger leaders. Speaking personally from his own experience, Stott addresses issues of discouragement, self-discipline, relationships and youth.
From Weakness to Strength: 8 Vulnerabilities That Can Bring Out the Best in Your Leadership (PastorServe Series)
Scott Sauls - 2017
Sauls shares his own stories and those of other leaders from Scripture and throughout history to remind us that we are human, we are sinners, and we need Jesus to help us thrive as people and leaders. For Christian leaders—both inside and outside of the church—weaknesses that are left unchecked can lead to a downfall that is both public and painful. They want to lead with character and live like Jesus, but ambition, isolation, criticism, envy, anticlimax, opposition, restlessness, and insecurity can get in the way. From Weakness to Strength provides leaders with tools to draw near to Jesus and stay encouraged and hopeful, even (and especially) when sin and struggle get in the way.
The Mystery of Providence
John Flavel - 1678
First published in 1678, this little work well illustrates and explains the purpose of God for his people.
Help for the New Pastor: Practical Advice for Your First Year of Ministry
Charles Malcolm Wingard - 2018
How do you moderate meetings, manage a church budget, and counsel struggling congregants, all while preparing sermons every week? The new pastor’s time is also inundated with something else—advice! Too much of it! Where do you begin? What you need during your make-or-break first year is practical, realistic preparation for ministry. Drawing from more than three decades of his own experience, Pastor Wingard gives essential help for navigating the principal duties of the minister. Find the tools you need to get established in your ministry and lead with confidence.
How to Eat Your Bible: A Simple Approach to Learning and Loving the Word of God
Nate Pickowicz - 2021
Maybe the long books and strange names feel overwhelming. Maybe you just don’t like reading. Whatever the case, How to Eat Your Bible will help you cultivate an appetite for life-long study of God’s Word. Find practical guidance for overcoming the hurdles that have kept you from making Bible study a regular part of your life. You’ll also become encouraged to pursue God’s Word by learning how other Christians throughout time maintained this crucial practice. Pastor Nate Pickowicz also includes a unique Seven Year Bible Plan so that you can apply what you’ve learned and continue drawing near to God as you consume His Word.
Disruptive Witness
Alan Noble - 2018
These two trends define life in Western society today. We are increasingly addicted to habits―and devices―that distract and "buffer" us from substantive reflection and deep engagement with the world. And we live in what Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor calls "a secular age"―an age in which all beliefs are equally viable and real transcendence is less and less plausible. Drawing on Taylor's work, Alan Noble describes how these realities shape our thinking and affect our daily lives. Too often Christians have acquiesced to these trends, and the result has been a church that struggles to disrupt the ingrained patterns of people's lives. But the gospel of Jesus is inherently disruptive: like a plow, it breaks up the hardened surface to expose the fertile earth below. In this book Noble lays out individual, ecclesial, and cultural practices that disrupt our society's deep-rooted assumptions and point beyond them to the transcendent grace and beauty of Jesus. Disruptive Witness casts a new vision for the evangelical imagination, calling us away from abstraction and cliché to a more faithful embodiment of the gospel for our day.
The New Reformation: Finding Hope in the Fight for Ethnic Unity
Shai Linne - 2021
Today, the crisis is race.We all know that racial unity is important. But what’s the right way to approach it? How can Christians of different ethnicities pursue unity in an environment that is so highly charged and full of landmines on all sides?In The New Reformation, Christian hip-hop artist Shai Linne shows how the gospel applies to the pursuit of ethnic unity. When it comes to ethnicity, Christians today have to fight against two tendencies: idolatry and apathy. Idolatry makes ethnicity ultimate, while apathy tends to ignore it altogether. But there is a third way, the way of the Bible. Shai explains how ethnicity—the biblical word for what we mean by “race”—exists for God’s glory.Drawing from his experience as an artist-theologian, church planter, and pastor, Shai will help you chart a new way forward in addressing the critical question of what it means for people of all ethnicities to be the one people of God.
Before Amen: The Power of a Simple Prayer
Max Lucado - 2014
. . some.We pray to stay sober, centered, or solvent. When the lump is deemed malignant. When the money runs out before the month does. When the marriage is falling apart. We pray.But wouldn’t we like to pray more? Better? Stronger? With more fire, faith, and fervency?Yet we have kids to feed, bills to pay, deadlines to meet. The calendar pounces on our good intentions like a tiger on a rabbit. And what about our checkered history with prayer? Uncertain words. Unmet expectations. Unanswered requests.We aren’t the first to struggle with prayer. The first followers of Jesus needed prayer guidance too. In fact, prayer is the only tutorial they ever requested.And Jesus gave them a prayer. Not a lecture on prayer. Not the doctrine of prayer. He gave them a quotable, repeatable, portable prayer. Couldn’t we use the same?In Before Amen best-selling author Max Lucado joins readers on a journey to the very heart of biblical prayer, offering hope for doubts and confidence even for prayer wimps. Distilling prayers in the Bible down to one pocket-sized prayer, Max reminds readers that prayer is not a privilege for the pious nor the art of a chosen few. Prayer is simply a heartfelt conversation between God and his child. Let the conversation begin.
Three Free Sins: A New Perspective on Sin and Grace
Steve Brown - 2012
It’s about the view that religion is all about sin…about how to hide side sin or how to stop sinning all together.In the Introduction, the author toys good-naturedly with an agitated caller on his radio program, teasing him in a segment where he offers three free sins. The offer is real. Not that Steve has the power to forgive sins, but he wants to make the point that Jesus has made the offer to cover all of our sins – not just three.Chapter one, titled “Teaching Frogs to Fly,” is even better. The gist of this chapter is that you can’t teach frogs to fly, just like you can’t teach people not to sin. Steve tells a story about a guy who has a frog, and he’s convinced he can teach the frog how to fly. The man keeps throwing the frog up in the air or up against walls – all to the poor frog’s demise. The message is that even though people can be better, they can never not sin—just like a frog can never learn to fly, no matter how much pressure is put on it.Steve continues through the book to show readers that while they can never manage sin, they can relax in knowing that they are completely forgiven—not just of three, but of all.
Provocative Church
Graham Tomlin - 2002
The basic theme is that we need provocative churches which raise the question asked by the onlookers in Acts 2:12: What does it all mean?
Gospel Assurance and Warnings
Paul David Washer - 2014
A pseudo-gospel of “easy believism” has led many into careless presumption, and a poor understanding of salvation has abandoned tender consciences to near spiritual despair. In Gospel Assurance and Warnings , Paul Washer shines the light of gospel hope as he cautions against the dangers of making an empty profession of faith and carefully explains from Scripture the basis for establishing and maintaining a sound assurance of faith. Table of Contents: PART ONE: Biblical Assurance 1. False Assurance 2. Examine Yourself 3. Walking in God’s Revelation 4. Confessing Sin 5. Keeping God’s Commandments 6. Imitating Christ 7. Loving Christians 8. Rejecting the World 9. Remaining in the Church 10. Confessing Christ 11. Purifying Self 12. Practicing Righteousness 13. Overcoming the World 14. Believing in Jesus PART TWO: Gospel Warnings, or Warnings to Empty Confessors 15. Gospel Reductionism 16. The Small Gate 17. The Narrow Way 18. The Outward Evidence of an Inward Reality 19. The Dangers of an Empty Confession Series Descriptions Although the Recovering the Gospel Series does not represent an entirely systematic presentation of the gospel, it does address most of the essential elements, especially those that are most neglected in contemporary Christianity. It is the hope of the author that these words might be a guide to help you rediscover the gospel in all its beauty, scandal, and saving power. It is his prayer that such a rediscovery might transform your life, strengthen your proclamation, and bring the greatest glory to God.